Gossiping- The key to health and long life

'Gossiping is just chatting with people and keeping up to date with the social world in which you live. So gossip is what makes us human.'

Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary psychology at Oxford University, believes it is the ‘most important thing’ to keep us alive.

'Your social network has a huge effect on happiness and well-being and has a bigger effect than anything, except giving up cigarettes.'

Gossip is what sets our species apart, as it helps us bonds with friends and learn important information about who to trust. 'The use of gossip in a negative sense is not seen until the 18th century.’

The idea is that as language developed it let humans communicate better and made them more likely to pass on useful information, allowing them to live in larger groups.

‘The problem we have is how to maintain our social networks. Language evolved to allow us to keep the oil of the social network flowing, keep us up to date, and tell stories, which is really important for community cohesion.'

'Even today the vast majority of human communication, whether in the form of emails, phone calls or newspaper columns is gossip.'

‘It comes so naturally, that it seems as if our language evolved for this very purpose.’ He added that ‘rumour-mongers’ were in fact the first journalists, helping inform others about who to avoid and who to trust.

This news is almost funny but it is true.... Anyway, you know what to do with this new excuse for "sharing information."

Wink*